GSM/GPRS Phone in an SD Card NOT Coming this Year

Late last week, The Inquirer reported that Siemens had found a way to fit all the necessary parts of a mobile phone into an SD card. This story was then picked up by numerous websites, including Brighthand. According to a spokesperson from Siemens, this report was not correct. Instead, the company’s forthcoming mobile phone card will be a CompactFlash card. This is a less significant announcement as there are already several of these on the market, while no SD version exists.

However, Siemans research and development people are working on an SD version. The spokesperson described this as “very challenging” but he said “with the current development in chipsets may well be possible in a year.”

More on the CompactFlash Version

The CompactFlash version, called the CF45, will use GSM/GPRS networks common in Europe and available in most of the U.S. It will have both wireless voice and data capabilities. Siemans says its has a data transfer rate of up to 85 Kbps.

Siemens hopes to release the CF45 in the U.S. and Europe before the end of this year, where it will sell somewhere in the neighborhood of 270 Euros.